Connected toothbrushes: Bridging the gap to personalized oral health

Abstract

To describe the health-related metrics available from a connected toothbrush and potential insights into individualized toothbrushing behavior and performance.A total of 1,926 patients used a new connected electronic toothbrush within a 4-month period. Data were collected from the brush using a smartphone application including frequency of use, duration and surface coverage of each brushing session across 16 zones covering occlusal, buccal and lingual surfaces.The population was comprised of 73% males, and 11% were left handed. Overall, there was no statistical difference between gender or handedness and mean duration (124 seconds) or mean proportional zonal duration (70%) of a brushing session. Both duration and zonal duration improved with usage of brush up to 60 days.The use of connected toothbrushes in patients' home care routines can improve overall brushing duration and zonal duration and offers the opportunity to understand authentic brushing habits on both an individual and population level. As such these data are of interest to practicing clinicians, clinical trialists and public health dentists. Such brushes are in their infancy and further developments will enhance these insights into whole mouth care and the link to oral and general health.